Listen

I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.

Think

“Tell ‘em Joe sent you!”

That phrase just isn’t necessarily very convincing is it? But then, any time one person speaks while representing someone else, the burden is pretty much on the representative to convince their audience that they do, indeed, speak with authority on behalf of another. The listeners have to be convinced that the speaker is trustworthy.

So it was with Jesus and the disciples. He had told the disciples that his words contained God’s message for God’s people. And though they didn’t understand completely all Jesus said, they did come to believe that he had come from God. They could feel confident about that much.

In his prayer, Jesus asked that the disciples remain confident that they have followed the right guy. He knew there were hard times ahead, and not just for him.

Pray

Go

There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God;
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before you
Near to the heart of God.

Cleland B. McAfee

read more>

writer

Nick Foster

Nick Foster is editor for d365. He lives in Columbia, Missouri, where he is executive director of Voluntary Action Center. Nick has two sons in Alabama, while he and his wife Candace await the birth of their first child in October.